The launch of the H. Upmann Magnum Finite Limited Edition 2024 vitola took place in one of the most iconic locations in the Spanish capital—the arches and inner gates of the Las Ventas bullring, a space filled with charm, history and culture.
Habanos S.A., the distribution arm of Cuban cigars, together with its partner and exclusive distributor for the Spanish market, Tabacalera S.L.U., presented the new vitola at the event organized by the Club Pasion Habanos under the name El ruedo de H. Upmann.
“The H. Upmann Magnum Finite Limited Edition 2024 (53 ring gauge x 130 mm length) stands out not only for its elegance but also for its exclusivity. It is a vitola designed for aficionados seeking a unique and sophisticated experience, combining the heritage and brand’s tradition, its refined Habanos, with a light to medium strength, and the characteristic aging of at least two years for limited editions,” a Habanos release states. “H. Upmann Magnum Finite is the result of a meticulous crafting process, using wrapper, filler and binder leaves from the Vuelta Abajo plantations, where the world’s best tobacco is produced, in Pinar del Rio region, Cuba.”
Magnum Finite comes in an exclusive box of 25 units. The flavor is creamy, woody, toasted and earthy with vegetal and mineral hints, ripe fruit, sweetness and light spices, leaving a finish of hay, smoked cedar, damp earth, moss, iodine hints, dried plum, vanilla, nutmeg and molasses.
Its aroma is tobacco, woody, toasted, herbal, ripe fruit, spicy and sweet, smoked cedar, leather, raisin, coffee, cocoa, clove, vanilla and molasses.
The sale of single-use vapes will be banned in England from June next year, the British government said on Thursday, seeking to crack down on the environmental harm and rising usage levels among children.
Vaping has grown rapidly in Britain in the last decade, with nearly one in 10 people buying and using the products, according to the government.
Supporters say vapes can help people give up smoking, but health authorities are concerned that their colorful designs and fruity flavors are designed to attract children, Reuters reports.
It is illegal to sell nicotine-containing e-cigarettes to anyone under the age of 18.
The plan to ban disposable vapes was initially set out by the previous Conservative government in January, alongside a move to ban anyone aged 15 and under from buying cigarettes – some of the strictest anti-smoking rules in the world.
The Labour government also plans to introduce a full smoking bill as part of what it called “the biggest public health intervention in a generation” to protect young people from becoming hooked on nicotine.
“Banning disposable vapes will not only protect the environment but importantly reduce the appeal of vapes to children and keep them out of the hands of vulnerable young people,” said Minister for Public Health and Prevention Andrew Gwynne.
Flonq introduces its solution to address the lack of ability to control nicotine consumption.
Contributed
A range of studies suggests that e-cigarettes can be an effective tool for helping conventional tobacco smokers quit. However, once individuals switch from tobacco smoking to e-cigarettes, there is no clear baseline for before and after comparison, since most users are unable to track how frequently they vape. Vape companies and manufacturers should propose solutions as part of their responsibilities. How can this be achieved? Alfabet Labs, the company behind the Flonq brand, offers its perspective on this issue.
One of the most recent studies on the effectiveness of electronic cigarettes as a smoking cessation tool was conducted by the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. The report concluded that there is high-certainty evidence that nicotine e-cigarettes are more effective than other methods, such as nicotine-replacement therapy—like patches or gum.
However, the goal after switching to e-cigarettes is to control, decrease or quit nicotine consumption. This presents a challenge, as it’s hard to accurately measure e-cigarette use to control nicotine intake. The main issue is figuring how to measure usage intensity, given the wide range of products and user behaviors.
So what should be the basis for comparing the consumption dynamic after switching to e-cigarettes? Should industry professionals measure the number of times an e-cigarette is used per day, the number of puffs taken, or the volume of e-liquid consumed? A consensus on measurement standards has yet to be established.
Vaping vs. cigarettes
The Eurobarometer study, which revealed key trends in smoking behavior in the EU, clearly illustrates the issue of accurate vape measurement. According to the report, the average daily consumption of tobacco was slightly higher than 14 units.
The data also reveals insights into e-cigarette usage. Among smokers who use e-cigarettes, the range resulted to be the following: 60 percent reported using them less than 10 times per day, 28 percent less than 20 times and approximately 11 percent over 21 times. A similar pattern was observed among ex-smokers who used e-cigarettes.
However, what is particularly important is that nearly half of the respondents reported being unsure about their previous daily usage of e-cigarettes. This uncertainty among former smokers about their past usage highlights the need for more research in this area.
Measuring consumption
The Nicotine & Tobacco Research journal conducted a study asking young adults who vape to provide suggestions for improving the scientific measurement of vaping.
Participants reported that they don’t actively monitor the number of puffs they take during a vaping session or over the course of a day. One participant remarked, “I would never count how many [puffs] I take.”
Additionally, several respondents noted that it is challenging for them to estimate how many times they vape during the day. They also expressed uncertainty about the amount of nicotine they consume per session. One participant said: “I wish that I could measure how much I’m [vaping]. I have no idea how much nicotine I’m taking in … I’m probably taking in more than a pack [of cigarettes] a day.”
Another respondent added, “No one can count how many times or how many hits in an hour. It’s pretty subconscious.”
It’s clear that using vapes to quit smoking or manage nicotine dependence won’t be effective without devices that include features for monitoring consumption. Whether it tracks the number of puffs, daily usage or other patterns, the device should provide a comparison point for the user.
Practical solutions
The Flonq vaping brand recently introduced its solution to address the lack of controlling the nicotine consumption in the industry. The brand presented META by Flonq—an advanced pod system designed for tracking and managing nicotine use. The device features a wide range of features that respond to the market demand for consumption transparency.
The real-time tracking system
The device monitors data such as the number of puffs, usage time and nicotine index level, all displayed on a single touch screen. The device collects data throughout the entire period of vape usage.
META Smart AI assistant
The integrated AI assistant helps to analyze nicotine usage patterns. With built-in behavioral therapy techniques, META is designed to offer personalized guidance.
Nicotine index
A key highlight of the device is the nicotine index developed by Flonq, which measures estimated nicotine saturation and determines the optimal timing for the next puff. It updates in real time, allowing users to follow a suggested plan to reduce nicotine intake or quit smoking.
“Whether you want to vape, reduce your nicotine intake or move toward a smoke-free life, the choice is yours,” says Marlen Nazarov, Flonq’s founder and CEO. “Our company’s focus is to respect your decision to vape while encouraging mindful choices.”
Overall, it seems that META offers consumers a straightforward and user-friendly way to track their nicotine usage—something the market needs to implement right away. This can be achieved through smart technologies such as integration with mobile apps, Bluetooth connectivity and alerts to notify users of excessive consumption. As the industry evolves and expands, these efforts will be essential in helping users manage their nicotine intake, make positive changes to their health and, what’s also important—to improve the industry’s overall image.
This week, the Coalition of Manufacturers of Smoking Alternatives (CMSA), a trade coalition that represents a diverse array of members who manufacture and distribute smoking harm reduction products, filed an amicus curiae brief before the Supreme Court of the United States supporting White Lion Investments, dba as Triton Distribution, in its case against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
In its brief, CMSA argues that FDA violated the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (TCA) in its wholesale rejection of applications for flavored vaping products by applying a surprise and improperly adopted standard and foregoing the required notice-and-comment process. The brief emphasizes that the U.S. Congress specifically requires the FDA to undergo a transparent rulemaking process before imposing any restriction that amounts to a “tobacco product” standard.
“Importantly, this process tasks FDA with considering the broader public health effects of any such standard, ‘such as creating demand for and increasing the use of unregulated black-market products,’ or other harmful consequences,” the CMSA states. “In its efforts to unilaterally reject flavored vapor product applications based on a new and heightened standard, FDA unlawfully sidestepped this critical regulatory check and operated outside the bounds of its authority.”
The CMSA states that the FDA circumvented the very procedures Congress imposed to check the arbitrary or unreasonable exercise of such delegated power, and causes real harms as the FDA “misleads and whipsaws” manufacturers seeking to provide a robust set of options for consumers seeking to quit smoking,” the CMSA wrote in its brief. Further adding that “the long delays in FDA’s review of the many PMTAs (premarket tobacco product applications) it has received, coupled with the moving goal posts imposed via the review process, creates a level of uncertainty that severely deters investment and innovation in new products with harm-reduction potential.”
Earlier this week, 13 members of Congress, including U.S. Senator Roger Marshall and U.S. Representative Andy Harris, filed an amicus brief supporting the position of Triton Distribution and CMSA. In their brief, the members of Congress write, “There is a clear lack of authority for such a ban. Congress has specifically prohibited the FDA from banning products. Despite this, the FDA imposed a categorical prohibition.”
Also, the Global Action to End Smoking wrote in its amicus brief to SCOTUS that the FDA strayed from a “sensible, science-based harm-reduction approach, adopting an all-or-nothing stance that exalts outright cessation and all but ignores the harm-reduction strategy that Congress mandated…. [ignoring the] overwhelming scientific evidence that e-cigarettes containing flavor additives have an important role to play in moving adult smokers down the continuum of risk.”
SCOTUS announced Dec. 2, 2024 as the date for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration v. Wages and White Lion Investments, LLC, d/b/a Triton Distribution hearing.
In North Yorkshire County in the United Kingdom, vape recycling bins have been installed at all 20 household waste recycling centers to prevent vapes from ending up in curbside bins.
Materials used in single-use vapes can harm the environment and must be disposed of separately.
Once collected at the recycling centers, they are transported to the recycling facility to be dismantled, and the lithium-ion battery is removed for processing while the metals and plastics are recycled.
Lithium-ion batteries can cause fires if discarded in curbside recycling or waste bins. These batteries cause most fires in the waste collection and recycling industry.
“This exciting new initiative has the aim of ensuring that people who use vape devices know how to dispose of them in the right way,” said the county’s executive member for waste services, Cllr Greg White. “Vapes are not safe to be recycled or disposed of in curbside bins or boxes at home. One incorrectly discarded vape could cause huge damage or serious injury.
“In August, we also introduced coffee pod bins at our recycling centers as we aim to continue expanding what we accept at our recycling centers. These initiatives demonstrate our commitment to responsible recycling and reducing our carbon footprint.”
Research released this year from Material Focus found that, in the U.K., the public is buying 7.7 million single-use vapes per week, which has doubled compared to 2022.
People are also throwing away 5 million single-use vapes per week, or eight per second, which has quadrupled compared to 2022.
The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Tuesday to ban the sale of filtered cigarettes in unincorporated areas of the county.
The ordinance was created by the Board’s Tobacco Waste Ad Hoc Subcommittee. It was supported by a coalition of environmental, health, educational and other groups and stakeholders.
“This is a momentous day that builds on the work our community has been doing for generations to protect our environment and establish Santa Cruz County as a global leader in the environmental movement,” Board of Supervisors Chair Justin Cummings said. “While the County is the first to take this step, by no means will we be the last. We look forward to working with local cities and other jurisdictions to protect our coast, our environment and our people.”
The sale of unfiltered cigarettes, cigars, loose-leaf and chewing tobacco, unflavored vape pens and other tobacco products will still be allowed, according to media reports.
The ordinance will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2027.
“Cigarette butts are the most littered item on the planet, they provide absolutely no health benefit to smokers, and they are poisonous to the environment. Let’s ban this toxic trash,” Supervisor Manu Koenig said.
French consumer vaping organization SOVAPE announced this week it will dissolve. The group has been active since 2016.
Best known for organizing three Vape Summits in France between 2016 and 2019, SOVAPE also co-founded the European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (ETHRA) umbrella organization. Since 2019, the group has commissioned annual surveys of French public opinion on vaping and nicotine conducted by major market research firm BVA.
However, this year BVA notified SOVAPE that it could no longer participate due to a health industry client’s contract prohibiting BVA from also working with nicotine-associated organizations, according to media reports.
The abrupt cancellation of the survey followed other recent blows, including news articles accusing SOVAPE and other consumer groups of connections to the tobacco industry, and attacks on scientists and health professionals who supported SOVAPE’s mission.
In an Oct. 6 website post, SOVAPE explained it can no longer carry out its mission due to the current climate of “censorship, threats, lies, denigration and slander, to which can be added the dissemination of fake news and the denial of scientific data.”
“Dialogue in this context is impossible,” SOVAPE wrote, “and clearly, it is now even ‘forbidden’ to provide information, such as a banal survey, on reducing the risks of smoking in France.”
SOVAPE will donate the balance of its funds equally to the Pasteur Institute and fellow vaping groups AIDUCE and La Vape du Cœur. SOVAPE has paid to keep its website available for 10 years, and maintains videos of Vape Summit proceedings on its Youtube channel.
“We regret that we are no longer able to cultivate a dialogue to promote the risk reduction approach against the main cause of preventable diseases and premature deaths in France,” SOVAPE said in its post. “We do not regret having tried, but must acknowledge that it is no longer possible for us to lead this fight that is dear to us, and which has nevertheless contributed to saving lives!”
The Supreme Court of the United States has agreed to consider another case involving federal approval of vapes at the request of the Biden administration on Friday.
The case arose after the Food and Drug Administration denied R.J. Reynolds Vapor Company’s request to introduce three flavored vapes on the market. The FDA said the company failed to meet federal requirements concerning tobacco products’ marketing, but the company contends that the decision was arbitrary and capricious.
Reynolds is based in North Carolina, and the federal appeals courts located there and in D.C. already had precedent on the books unfavorable to the manufacturer.
Under federal law, companies can challenge the FDA denying of a marketing order for a new tobacco product in Washington, D.C., or where the company’s principal place of business is located, reports The Hill.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has been more sympathetic to the industry, making it an attractive place for companies to contest their products being denied.
The 5th Circuit’s rule effectively enables it to host any tobacco company’s challenge, so long as its lawsuit is joined by a convenience store or other retail seller within the 5th Circuit’s borders—which span Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
Reynolds instead filed its challenge in the 5th Circuit alongside Avail Vapor Texas and the Mississippi Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Stores Association. The federal government attempted to move venues, but the 5th Circuit said the additional challengers meant the case was properly brought.
No matter which way the justices rule, they are not expected to address the merits of the FDA’s denial. The Supreme Court only took up the question of whether the 5th Circuit was a proper venue.
“There is no circuit conflict over the meaning of this venue provision. And other vehicle problems abound,” the company wrote in court filings urging the justices to turn away the appeal.
Specifically, the FDA has issued guidance to the tobacco industry that describes the agency’s enforcement policy for the final rule. The final rule was issued in March 2020 and was challenged in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. In December 2022, the District Court struck down the rule.
The government appealed the decision and in May of 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit reversed the District Court’s decision. This reinstated the final rule, causing the rule to now be in effect. The plaintiffs’ petition for a review by the Supreme Court review is pending.
“The new guidance for the agency’s enforcement policy states that the FDA intends to exercise enforcement discretion and generally not enforce requirements of the final rule for 15 months, or until December 12, 2025,” an FDA release states. “With respect to products manufactured before December 12, 2025, the FDA also intends to exercise enforcement discretion and generally not enforce the rule’s requirements for these products for an additional 30-day period, or until January 12, 2026.”
The pause aligns with the 15-month compliance period originally contemplated by the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.
The FDA chose 15 months to provide an orderly transition period; this aligns with the 15-month compliance period originally contemplated by the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, before that timing was disrupted by litigation.
The final rule also requires the industry to submit a plan and obtain FDA approval for the random and equal display and distribution of required warnings on cigarette packages and the quarterly rotation of required warnings in cigarette advertisements.
The agency’s guidance recommends that entities that do not already have approved cigarette health warning plans submit such plans as soon as possible, but in any event, within five months or by February 10, 2025. Entities that previously submitted cigarette plans to the FDA do not need to resubmit their plans unless they wish to make changes.
Menthol cigarettes and menthol-flavored heated tobacco sticks are strictly banned in multiple countries, including Canada, Ethiopia, the European Union, Moldova, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and specific regions of the United States like California, the District of Columbia, and Massachusetts.
In an effort to satisfy menthol consumers, Dekang Biotech Co. Ltd., an established player in the vaping industry, developed the DKiss menthol flavor roll-on. According to the company, the innovative product is set to transform the smoking experience in several ways.
“It is the easiest way to flavor cigarettes. The DKiss Menthol Flavor Roll-On is distinguished by its innovative roll-on design, ensuring a clean and convenient application process while allowing users to adjust the intensity based on their preferences,” a Dekang representative said.
The DKiss menthol flavor roll-on can be used with both traditional cigarettes and heated tobacco sticks for heat-not-burn nicotine delivery systems. It caters to a diverse audience by providing a wide variety of flavor options, including flavors specifically designed for individuals sensitive to cigarette odors.
DKiss menthol roll-on allows smokers to flavor their own cigarettes. In addition to menthol, the Dkiss line offers several other mixed flavors derived from plant extracts, such as loquat and ginseng, blended with menthol. This helps remove the bad breath caused by smoking. It brings the most satisfying fragrance to add a new dimension to your inhalation experience, according to Dekang.
“This product effectively eradicates cigarette odors and bad breath caused by smoking, serving as a discreet solution for smokers,” the representative said. “Mint enthusiasts will appreciate the refreshing mint flavor variant, which cleverly balances the taste of the cigarette and the unpleasant smell it creates, making it an ideal choice for menthol cigarette lovers.”
Dekang will showcase its DKiss menthol roll-on brand and its other innovative product lines during the Intertabac industry trade show (booths 5.D14 and 1B.A28), which will be held in Dortmund, Germany, from Sept. 19 – 21, 2024.
“The H. Upmann Magnum Finite Limited Edition 2024 (53 ring gauge x 130 mm length) stands out not only for its elegance but also for its exclusivity. It is a vitola designed for aficionados seeking a unique and sophisticated experience, combining the heritage and brand’s tradition, its refined Habanos, with a light to medium strength, and the characteristic aging of at least two years for limited editions,” a Habanos release states. “H. Upmann Magnum Finite is the result of a meticulous crafting process, using wrapper, filler and binder leaves from the Vuelta Abajo plantations, where the world’s best tobacco is produced, in Pinar del Rio region, Cuba.”
